Battle of Passchendaele

This battle is frequently mentioned as an example of the horrific number of soldiers killed, maimed or lost in action that that occurred in numerous battles of World War I, and the name itself has come to be used as a synonym for pointless slaughter. The Germans lost approximately 250,000 men, while the British Empire forces lost about 300,000, including 36,500 Australians; 90,000 British and Australian bodies were never identified, and 42,000 were never recovered. An arial photograph of Passchendaele taken after the battle showed over half a million shell holes in one half square mile area. All the territory gained by the Allies in this battle (an advance of up to six miles) was lost in the Fourth Battle of Ypres[?] in April 1918.

"...I died in Hell
(they called it Passchendaele) my wound was slight
and I was hobbling back; and then a shell
burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell
into the bottomless mud, and lost the light"

    -- Siegfried Sassoon

The Battle of Passchendaele, fought October 10-29, 1918, was an engagement of the French-British-Belgian army under French General Degoutte against the German army under General Rupprecht.